Mexican villagers on cartel frontline clash with soldiers
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Inhabitants of a town on the front line of a turf war between rival drug cartels in Mexico said soldiers fired on them during a clash Saturday in the western state of Michoacan.
State police denied the government was responsible for the violence. José Alfredo Ortega, the head of state police, said soldiers were retreating when they came under fire from another direction, and that later someone detonated an explosive device.
The clash occurred in an area where the Jalisco cartel is fighting a bloody turf war with gangs from Michoacan. The two sides have used trenches, sharpshooters, bombs dropped by drones and homemade armored cars against each other. Increasingly, civilians have found themselves on the front lines of the fighting.
The incident involved protesters from a Jalisco-dominated town, Lomas Blancas. They are angry because they claim government policy favors the Michoacan-based Viagras cartel.
Soldiers are in a difficult position in Michoacan; the government strategy has been to repel attempts by the Jalisco cartel to gain territory in Michoacan, but do little or nothing about the Viagras, who set up roadblocks to extort money from inhabitants.
Soldiers have apparently been ordered just to keep rival cartels apart, but that angers townspeople in Jalisco-dominated towns like Loma Blanca, because soldiers don’t prevent the Viagras from operating.
The protesters provided video of parts of the clash, showing demonstrators and soldiers engaged in shoving, shouting and rock throwing on both sides. In the video, detonations can be heard, but those may have been tear gas cannisters or warning shots.
Ortega said that from a nearby hill, “up there, criminals were firing shots.” A statement by his department said two soldiers were wounded and two suspects arrested.
But protest organizer José Francisco Helizondo said several protesters were wounded by some kind of live fire.
Videos of one of the men appears to show shrapnel or shotgun pellets in his leg. Ortega said somebody detonated an explosive device, which he believed may have caused the injuries. Mexico’s Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The area’s produce — limes and cattle heading out, or supplies heading in — have been forced to pay a war tax to the Viagras.
The protesters, who have faced off with soldiers before, are demanding the army open the roads and act with equal force against both cartels.
